Recently, we looked at five women you may not have known were nominated for the Saltire Society Literary Awards’ First Book Award. So, here’s five male authors whose debuts you may not have known were up for the accolade back in the day too!

Irvine Welsh Irvine Welsh has gone on to become one of Scotland’s most recognisable authors, with his distinctive writing style that puts Scots in the hands of people all over the world. In 1993, Trainspotting was nominated for the First Book, the first in a string of titles including Filth, Porno, Ecstasy, Skagboys, A Decent Ride, not to mention his writing for film and stage.

Andrew O’HaganAndrew O’Hagan was shortlisted for the 1996 First Book Award for his debut The Missing. Since then he has written five novels and two non-fiction books and was the ghost writer for Julian Assange’s autobiography published by Canongate and Knopf. O’Hagan was most recently nominated for the Book of the Year Award for The Illuminations in 2015.

Michel Faber Dutch-born Michel Faber was nominated in 1999 for Some Rain Must Fall and has continued to publish his work with Canongate over the years, from The Crimson Petal and the White, to The Book of Strange New Things, which won Saltire’s Book of the Year in 2015.

Crìsdean MacIlleBhàinCrìsdean’s debut Uirsgeul/Myth won the 1992 First Book award (jointly with Jackie Kay’s Adoption Papers), a collection of original poetry in Scottish Gaelic with facing English translations. He has since published many more collections, fiction in English and later won the Saltire Society Research Book of the Year in 2002.

Andrew MarrGlasgow-born Andrew Marr’s first book The Battle for Scotland was nominated for the First Book award in 1992. Marr then became a regular political editor for the BBC and began The Andrew Marr Show on BBC One in 2005. The Battle for Scotland was updated with a new introduction prior to the 2014 referendum to explore the journey from 1992 to that present day.